Slim Public Support for MOU's with Yemen and Morocco

The docket for the upcoming CPAC meeting on proposed MOU's with Morocco and Yemen indicates that 170 comments were received about one or both of these MOU's.  The vast majority of comments came in response to an appeal from JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East & North Africa) against State Department efforts to recognize the rights of authoritarian MENA countries to the religious and cultural artifacts of their displaced Jewish populations.

Coin collector-numismatic trade comments were way down (to approximately 10) from 100's in the past, no doubt due to frustration about the likelihood of numismatic logic moving the State Department, as well as the fact that the obscure coin types found in these countries are mainly of interest to specialists. 

Archaeologists and archaeological advocacy groups were only represented with approximately 10 comments as well, which should again confirm that there is very little actual public support for these MOU's.

Oddly, the "Antiquities Coalition" which has worked with the Yemeni Government on this MOU apparently failed to submit any public comments.  Is it possible the Coalition has already received assurances that the MOU's are a "done deal?"

Better Burned then Smuggled?

UNESCO and the Iraqi cultural bureaucracy are up in arms because some valuable Islamic manuscripts were removed from ISIS controlled Mosul and taken to Turkey. One wonders if UNESCO and the Iraqi cultural bureaucracy would rather have seen them burned by Islamic fanatics instead.

If anything, the rise of ISIS and the the devolution of the rest of Iraq into a Shia-dominated sectarian rump state also confirms the wisdom of keeping the Iraqi Jewish archive in the United States.

CPO was dubious about the archive's repatriation even before the wheels came off in Iraq.  Yet, CPO suspects there are still some in the archaeological lobby still pressing for the return of the archive to an uncertain fate.

The Full Story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive

Here is the full story of the Iraqi Jewish Archive.  It's clear that many of the objects are of a personal nature and not as claimed by some ardent repatriationists merely government documents about Jews. All documents of a personal, religious or community nature should go back to their true owners or to the Iraqi Jewish Community in exile.   Repatriationist principles should not apply where the nation state stole the artifacts in question as part of ethnic cleansing.  It should be simple as that.

House Resolution to Protect the Iraqi Jewish Archive Garners Wide Support

Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen's resolution to ensure the rights of Iraqi Jews in exile to access to the Iraqi Jewish Archive has already garnered the support of 21 House Members, including the resolution's initial co-sponsor, Democratic Congressman Israel.  The Co-sponsors to date are:

Rep Chabot, Steve [OH-1] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Cicilline, David N. [RI-1] - 3/12/2014 
Rep Coffman, Mike [CO-6] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Deutch, Theodore E. [FL-21] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Frankel, Lois [FL-22] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Franks, Trent [AZ-8] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Grimm, Michael G. [NY-11] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Israel, Steve [NY-3] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Johnson, Bill [OH-6] - 3/6/2014 
Rep King, Peter T. [NY-2] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Latta, Robert E. [OH-5] - 3/12/2014 
Rep Lowey, Nita M. [NY-17] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Murphy, Patrick [FL-18] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Nadler, Jerrold [NY-10] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Roskam, Peter J. [IL-6] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Stivers, Steve [OH-15] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Titus, Dina [NV-1] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-23] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Weber, Randy K. Sr. [TX-14] - 3/6/2014 
Rep Wolf, Frank R. [VA-10] - 3/6/2014

But what is the position of the Archaeological Institute of America and Saving Antiquities for Everyone on the matter?  Both groups have been adamant in the past that Iraqi cultural artifacts should be repatriated.

Hopefully, common sense and common decency have caused them to rethink their usual position as to these artifacts which were stolen from Iraq's once vibrant Jewish community.

Bipartisan Resolution Condemning Repatriation of the Iraqi Jewish Archive Introduced in the House

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Congressman Steven Israel (D-NY) have introduced a resolution, HR 505, recommending that the US renegotiate the return of the Iraqi Jewish Archive so that the rights of the Iraqi Jewish community in exile are protected.  The resolution mirrors an earlier one that passed by unanimous consent in the Senate.  Will the State Department and its Cultural Heritage take heed of these resolutions or will they be ignored?  And, if so, will Congress take additional action to stop the repatriation?   And what of the ardent repatriationists in the archaeological community?  Will they actively oppose the resolution and what it stands for?

Like Sending Back Art Nazis Looted

Anyone who still thinks the Iraqi Jewish Archive should be repatriated to Iraq should read this story about a Canadian doctor born an Iraqi Jew who just wants her own property back.  No, despite some disinformation in the archaeological blogosphere, the issue is not Iraqi Government documents "about Jews."  Rather, the issue is about documents taken from Iraqi Jews who were the subject of ethnic cleansing by an anti-Semitic Iraqi state.

The documents should go to their true owners or their representatives, not the country that hounded them to leave.  It's as simple as that.

Almost 50 House Members Urge State Department to Turn Over Iraqi Jewish Archive to Iraqi Jews

Haaretz is reporting that almost 50 Members of the US House of Representatives have asked the State Department to turn over the Iraqi Jewish Archive to Iraqi Jews.   And no wonder.  As Haaretz explains,  

Members of Iraq's Jewish community, many of whom fled the country in previous decades, say the materials were forcibly taken from them and should not be returned.

Edwin Shuker, 58, who escaped to Britain with his family from Baghdad in 1971, said he had discovered his long-abandoned school certificate on display as part of the National Archives exhibition.

"This is more than a school certificate - it is the identity we were forced to leave behind," he told Reuters, likening the document's journey and survival to his own.

"I would like to be reassured that my children and future generations will have unrestricted access to this collection."

Yet, the State Department ignored another bipartisan letter from 12 members of Congress raising concerns with the then prospective inclusion of coins in the Italian MOU.  So, one has to wonder whether the State Department will actually address these concerns though we are told they have been heard "loud and clear." 

UN conference highlights plight of Jewish refugees, fate of Iraqi Jewish Archive

Despite the hopes of the US State Department and its Cultural Heritage Center, the question of the fate of the Iraqi-Jewish Archive just won't go away.  Meanwhile, over in the archaeological blogosphere, even erstwhile allies beg to differ with the most extreme of repatriationist views.

Don't Let the Iraqi-Jewish Archive Go Back to Iraq!

Jewish groups have sponsored this petition asking the US Government not to send the Iraqi-Jewish archive back to an uncertain future in Iraq.  This is part of a larger effort in Congress to pressure the State Department and the Obama Administration to do the right thing and make sure the archive is turned over to Iraqi-Jewish representatives.  These groups have even developed this platform to help deported Jews make a claim to their own heritage.  A late start but an effort anyone who really cares about preserving the history of the Iraqi-Jewish community should support.

The Power of Artifacts

The National Archives has a selection of artifacts from the Iraqi Jewish Archive on view through January 5, 2014.  

After visiting the heart rendering display, CPO can attest that even in their damaged state, these artifacts retain a power to help us imagine a now vanished community.  Indeed, given all the indignities they've suffered, perhaps they are a bit too pristine.  Given their aged but clean condition, it's hard to imagine them as they were found-- waterlogged in the basement of Saddam's secret police headquarters.

And what of their ultimate fate?  What assurances do we have that Iraqi authorities will ensure they are preserved for future generations and made available to scholars and members of the exiled Jewish community?

Digitizing them may preserve what information they contain, but electronic copies are no substitute for the real thing that is of tangible cultural value to the Iraqi-Jewish Community in exile.  And looking at religious texts printed centuries ago in places like Vienna and Venice as well as all the items of a personal nature taken from deported Jews, any thinking person must really question the rights of the modern nation state of Iraq to these artifacts in the first place.

Can the Poignant Documents in the Iraqi Jewish Archive Warm Hearts of Stone?

Can the poignant documents in the Iraqi Jewish archive cause a rethink about the justice of the repatriationist position of those in the US State Department and its Cultural Heritage Center, the Iraqi Government and  hardliners within the archaeological community?  It seems not.  Instead, there is only silence, even in those reaches of the archaeological blogosphere which usually cannot pass up a chance to comment on any issue, large or small.

Falling on Deaf Ears?

The New York Times has published this heartfelt plea for the Obama Administration to ensure the Jewish archive rescued by US troops from the flooded basement of Iraqi Secret Police headquarters does not return to Iraq.  The claim is that the Obama Administration is bound by a decision of the Bush Administration, but President Obama has sought to  distance himself from the Bush Administration on Iraq, so why not here as well?  And what of the silence from all those Holocaust art lawyers?  Don't some of the same principles apply here?

State Department Rebuffs Schumer

The U.S. State Department and its Cultural Heritage Center have rebuffed Senator Schumer's effort to stop the repatriation of the property of Iraqi Jews to the same country that deported them.  In 2009, the State Department and its Cultural Heritage Center also imposed import restrictions on Chinese cultural goods, despite prior assurances to the Senator to the contrary.

Will Senator Schumer press the State Department on the matter or let it drop as was done with import restrictions on Chinese cultural artifacts?

Schumer Seeks to Block Return of Jewish Artifacts

Senator Chuck Schumer, who was highly critical of the State Department's handling of import restrictions on cultural goods from China, has now sought to block the State Department's proposed repatriation of Jewish artifacts to Iraq. The New York Daily News quotes Senator Schumer as follows:

"These sacred artifacts were taken from the Iraqi Jewish community and thus do not belong to the Iraqi government,” the senior New York senator told the Daily News. “They belong to the thousands of Iraqi Jews, an ancient and once-vibrant community, who were exiled many years ago," Schumer said.


Will the State Department defy Senator Schumer yet again in pursuit of its Cultural Heritage Center's repatriationist agenda?

Do the Right Thing

It appears from reading the Washington Post article about the proposed return of the "Jewish Archive" to Iraq that many of the artifacts are in fact personal in nature.  If so, shouldn't the US State Department and its Cultural Heritage Center be required to make images of the archive available to families of displaced Jews and give them an opportunity to claim what is rightfully theirs before such material is repatriated?   Who has better title, a successor government to those which hounded these people out of the country that had been their home for generation upon generation or the families themselves?

Iraqi Jewish Archive To Be Returned to Uncertain Future

The Washington Post has a poignant article about the Iraqi Jewish Archive and its planned return to the anti-Semitic Government of Iraq after a $3 million restoration courtesy of the US Taxpayer.

One wonders whether the same ardent repatriationists who have demanded its return will monitor the Iraqi Government's treatment of the archive with the anywhere near the same vigor they have shown in criticizing the US Government's actions, which after all, saved the archive from oblivion.

And will the archive be cared for by the Iraqis on its return?  Will it remain available so scholars?   CPO tends to doubt it as do many of  those who have already posted comments to the Washington Post article.

The Aleppo Codex Mystery

The New York Times has an interesting article about the mystery how the Aleppo Codex came to Israel and how it might have lost some 200 pages along the way.  It does ask whether the Codex should belong to the Modern State of Israel or Aleppo's Jewish exiles.  It does not suggest, however, like some in the archaeological blogosphere have, that the Codex still belongs in Syria, which conducted a thorough "ethnic cleansing" of its Jewish population well before the Assad regime began its recent bombardment of Aleppo itself. Interestingly, even some associated with the hard line archaeological advocacy group Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE) have begun to acknowledge that perhaps Jewish artifacts are not best off in the hands of governments that have persecuted Jews after all.  Will others in the archaeological blogosphere follow?

Cultural Nationalism Now Bites American Archaeologists

A Kurdish source is reporting that the Iraqi Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has stopped dealing with US archaeological teams in response to the refusal of US authorities to return Iraqi Jewish artifacts to the country. 

If so, this is a rebuff not only to American archaeologists who have tirelessly promoted the interests of the Iraqi archaeological establishment (both during and after the fall of Saddam's Baathist regime) but also to the US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center, which have lavished millions of dollars on the Iraqi archaeological establishment-- all at a time US cultural institutions are finding themselves in an extremely harsh financial climate.

In punishing American archaeologists for a dispute over the repatriation of cultural artifacts, the Iraqis are apparently taking a page from the Turkish Government which has also recently punished German archaeologists for the perceived transgressions of German state museums.

Here, the Iraqis are apparently specifically miffed at US reconsideration of a controversial State Department "commitment"  to return cultural artifacts confiscated from Iraqi Jews who were forced from their homeland in a callous act of "ethnic cleansing".   Given their own "unclean hands," it's hard to see any "moral rights" Iraq may have to such artifacts. 

And in an ironic twist, American archaeologists apparently have now themselves become the "victims" of the very same virulent cultural nationalism they have themselves done so much to foster.  Perhaps it's finally time for the Archaeological Institute of America to rethink its unqualified support for the broadest claims of any nation state where American archaeologists excavate. 

And it's certainly time to cut any further funding of Iraqi archaeology or the repatriation of any "Iraqi looking" cultural goods based on the slimmest suspicion they may have left that country after an international embargo was placed on the import of any Iraqi products. 

The Aleppo Codex

The archaeological blogosphere has been full of comments about the pros and cons of repatriating the Iraqi Jewish archive. Yet, there has been no discussion of the far more culturally significant Aleppo Codex that left another country hostile to Jewish culture years ago. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleppo_Codex

The Codex left Syria well before academic archaeologists began to press for repatriation even where such returns raise serious questions about preservation of the objects in question.

The Codex is clearly better off in Israel than in Syria. The strong likelihood is that the Iraqi Jewish archive would be more likely to be preserved and studied as well if it remains outside of a hostile Iraq. Yet, our State Department as well as its supporters in the archaeological community apparently do not see it that way. They plan to accede to Iraqi demands for repatriation, although there are no guarantees the archive will be available for academic study or even preserved.

Will there also be calls for the return of the Aleppo Codex? Or, is the analysis different because it left Syria well before the 1970 UNESCO Convention was promulgated?

More on the Jewish Archive

Dorothy King (PhDiva) has an interesting post about the continuing dispute over the return of a Jewish archive to Iraq. See
http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/07/iraqi-jewish-archive.html

Repatriationists within the State Department seem hell bent on returning the material to the Iraqis-- the only question is whether the State Department will spend the $3 million in US taxpayer dollars appropriated to restore it first.

Yet, repatriation can easily be viewed as morally repugnant; the Iraqi State only gained custody over the belongings of departing Jews after they were forced into exile. See
http://culturalpropertyobserver.blogspot.com/2008/07/joffee-critiques-justifications-for.html

Under the circumstances, wouldn't it be better to turn over the material to the Jewish Iraqi community living abroad rather than to the Iraqi State that was responsible for persecuting Jews and eliminating Jewish culture in Iraq?